Glossaries and guidance

The aim of terminology work at the Prime Minister's Office is to harmonise the terms used in government texts, both in the national languages of Finland and in foreign languages, and to promote clear communication. This facilitates cooperation between branches of government and ensures that the same terms are used consistently across languages.

Glossaries provide recommendations to translators and others in the field on the appropriate use of terms. The results of terminology work are also used in information systems and when describing the content of published materials.

Glossaries are drawn up in cooperation with language specialists and experts from different administrative branches. In addition to glossaries of varying scope, the Prime Minister's Office draws up guidelines for Swedish legal language and offering solutions to problems that arise when writing in English, and compiles translation memories consisting of texts translated for the Government and ministries.

Glossaries and materials drawn up by the Translation and Language Division are published in the Government Termbank Valter or as separate publications on this page. 

The language specialists at the Prime Minister's Office also contribute to glossaries drawn up by other organisations. These glossaries are published in the Institutional Repository for the Government Valto (use ‘glossary’ as a search term), the Suomi.fi service maintained by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, the TEPA Term Bank maintained by the Finnish Terminology Centre and the Finto service maintained by the National Library of Finland.

The Prime Minister’s Office also maintains a list of glossaries produced by other bodies in various fields.

Terminology service

The Prime Minister’s Office provides free advice on the use of government terms. You can contact the terminology service (by telephone from 9.00 to 12.00 on weekdays or by email) for advice on how to translate government terms such as säännös (provision) or valtioneuvoston ohjesääntö (Government Rules of Procedure) into Swedish, English, French or Russian, for example.

Phone: +358 295 160 528
Email: termineuvonta.vnk@gov.fi

Glossaries, guidelines other materials maintained by the Prime Minister’s Office

Glossaries

Guidance

In addition to the guides listed above, our Finnish website provides links (in Finnish) to other useful guidance.

Translation memories

Material from Finland’s 2019 Presidency of the Council of the European Union